Accused Christchurch massacre gunman Brenton Harrison Tarrant has made a white power gesture from behind a glass window during a brief appearance in court.
Tarrant, 28, originally from Grafton, New South Wales but more recently a resident of Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island, was dressed in a white custody outfit with a black sash around his waist.
Flanked by two much taller armed security officers, Tarrant smiled faintly as he stood behind a small glass barrier which came up just above his eyes.
A second man Daniel John Burrough, 18, has also been charged in relation to the mosque attacks but he did not appear in court.
Short of stature with a stocky build, with thinning hair and beady brown eyes, Tarrant stood squarely in place throughout the entire hearing.
He swivelled his torso around to repeatedly glance at the media, at District Court Judge Paul Kaller out the windows of the Christchurch District Court.
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Accused Christchurch massacre gunman Brenton Harrison Tarrant (pictured) has made a white power gesture from behind a glass window, during a brief appearance in court
Flanked by two much taller armed security officers, Tarrant smiled faintly as he stood behind a small glass barrier which came up just above his eyes.
Tarrant, 28, originally from Grafton, New South Wales but more recently a resident of Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island, was dressed in a white custody outfit with a black sash around his waist
At the beginning of the hearing he appeared to have a faint smile on his face, but it faded into a neutral expression as the hearing continued.
Security was tight, with about six security guards and police in total, the guards wearing black protective vests.
No members of the public were allowed to attend except for media 'in the interest's of public safety', the judge said.
Tarrant was remanded in custody. His duty lawyer did not apply for bail.
He has been charged with one count of murder but police say many more charges are expected to be laid.
The hearing was all over in just a few minutes, with Tarrant taking one final look at those gathered and marched away.
He is due to reappear in the High Court on April 5.
Tarrant was photographed and filmed in court by New Zealand cameras but they have been ordered to pixellate his face in images from inside court.
Burrough has also been charged with intent to excite hostility or ill will against any group of persons in New Zealand and publishing written matter which is insulting, court documents said.
Another man remains in custody, and police are still trying to 'build a picture of any of the individuals involved and all of their activities prior to this horrific event'.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush confirmed the death toll stands at 49, with 42 injured.
Brenton Tarrant is pictured as a child being held by his keen athlete father who died of cancer in 2010 at the age of 49. He grew up in Grafton in the Northern River region of Australia's New South Wales and worked as a personal trainer before leaving to travel the world
Two of those injured are in a critical condition, including a four-year-old who is being transported from Christchurch to the country's specialist children's hospital Starship in Auckland.
Mr Bush added: 'There is no guarantee the risk is limited to Canterbury and we need all New Zealanders to be extra vigilant.
'Police is aware there are distressing materials related to this event circulating widely online. We would urge anyone who has been affected by seeing these materials to seek appropriate support.'
He said there will be a heightened police presence at community events on Saturday 'for safety and reassurance'.
Details of the alleged terrorist's background are emerging, including his upbringing in the rural New South Wales town of Grafton which he left shortly after his father Rodney died of cancer when Tarrant was in his early 20s.
He seems to have spent up to seven years travelling the world from 2011 onwards, and one woman who knew him before he left Grafton speculated to Daily Mail Australia that 'something happened to him' during this time. She also recognised him as being the man in the massacre video.
Tarrant claimed in a so-called 'manifesto' to have made money trading Bitcoin, enabling him to travel the world. He also spoke of visiting a wide range of countries including Pakistan, and a photograph showed him on a tourist trip to North Korea.
A picture posted on social media by a Pakistani hotel manager in 2018 appears to show him in the country during his time abroad.
But at some point he seems to have become obsessed with terrorist attacks that happened in Europe between 2016 and 2017. His ranting manifesto is filled with Neo-Nazi ideology and hatred for Muslim people.
Tarrant grew up in a picture-perfect house (shown above) in Grafton in the Northern River region of Australia's New South Wales
Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots at Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch on the country's South Island. Pictured is a still from a live-stream of the shooting
The shooter's rampage began when he got into his car wearing military-style body armour and a helmet saying 'let's get this party started'
Friday March 15, 1.30pm local time (12.30am GMT): Gunman identifying himself as Brenton Tarrant live-streams mass shooting inside the Al Noor Mosque as Friday prayers are underway. The Bangladesh cricket team were on their way to the mosque at the time.
Another shooting takes place at a mosque in Linwood, 3.5 miles to the east.
1.40pm: Police respond to reports of shots fired in central Christchurch. People are urged to stay indoors and report any suspicious behaviour. Shortly afterwards, all schools in the city are placed into lockdown.
2.10pm: Police confirm they are attending an 'evolving situation' involving an 'active shooter'
3.30pm: Two explosive devices attached to a car are found and disarmed by a bomb squad at Strickland Street, not far from the Al Noor Mosque.
4pm: One person confirmed to be in custody. New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush says there have been 'multiple fatalities' at two locations - both mosques. Mosques across New Zealand urged to shut their doors.
4.10pm: Prime minister Jacinda Ardern calls it 'one of New Zealand's darkest days'.
5.30pm: Mr Bush says three men and one woman are in custody. Australian prime minister Scott Morrison confirms one of those arrested is Australian.
7.30pm: Ms Ardern says 40 are dead and more than 20 are seriously injured but confirms the offender is in custody
National security threat level is lifted from low to high.
7.45pm: Britomart train station in central Auckland is evacuated after bags are found unattended. The bags were deemed not suspicious.
9pm: Death toll rises to 49 and Police Commissioner Bush reveals a man in his late 20s has been charged with murder.
Police are not looking for any named or identified suspects, he says, but adds that it would be 'wrong to assume that there is no-one else'.
11.50pm: Investigation extends 240 miles to the south where homes are evacuated around a 'location of interest' in Dunedin.
One woman who knew Tarrant before he left Grafton said he worked as a personal trainer who was obsessed with fitness but seemed like a well-adjusted young man.
In a twisted manifesto that he posted online before the massacre, Tarrant described himself as an 'ordinary, white man', who was born into a working class, low income family of Scottish, Irish and English decent.
He said in the document he had 'no interest' in attending university after leaving school. His father died of cancer when he was in his early 20s, and he left Australia to travel the world shortly afterwards.
Prosecutors in Bulgaria have launched a probe into Tarrant's recent visit to the country. He visited Bulgaria from November 9-15 last year claiming he wanted 'to visit historical sites and study the history of the Balkan country', according to Bulgaria's public prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov.
Tsatsarov said he hoped the inquiry would establish if this was 'correct or if he had other objectives'.
Tarrant's father, Rodney, who was a competitive athlete, died of cancer in 2010 aged just 49 and his mother and sister are rumoured to still live in the area.
While it remains unclear whether any of his relatives - including his mother - still live in the area, the family is very well known in the region.
The gunman wrote that he had 'little interest in education' growing up, and did not attend university as he had no great interest in anything offered at the schools.
After retrieving one of at least six assault rifles stored in his car, he walked up to the front door and began firing at the first person he saw
In addition to the dead, health officials said 48 people were being treated at Christchurch Hospital for gunshot wounds. Injuries ranged from minor to critical
A man breaks down in tears as he speaks on a mobile phone near a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand
He claimed he made some money investing in Bitconnect - a type of digital currency - before he then used the money to travel overseas.
Tarrant, who would later go on to become a personal trainer, inherited a love of physical fitness from his father, who reportedly died of an asbestos-related illness.
A woman who claims to have previously known Tarrant through the gym, alleged it was him in the live stream.
She told Daily Mail Australia that he followed a strict dietary and exercise regime and worked at the gym after he finished school.
The woman, who did not wish to be named, said Tarrant always 'threw himself into his own personal training' before he later became a qualified a trainer and started training others.
He was very dedicated to his own training and to training others, she said.
'He was in the gym for long periods of time, lifting heaving weights. He pretty much transformed his body,' she said.
The woman also said she had not spoken to him or heard him talk about his political or religious beliefs.
'From the conversations we had about life he didn't strike me as someone who had any interest in that or extremist views,' she said.
'But I know he's been travelling since he left Grafton. He has been travelling overseas, anywhere and everywhere.
Local residents leave floral tributes at Deans Avenue near the Al Noor Mosque on March 16, 2019 in Christchurch, New Zealand. At least 49 people are confirmed dead
Floral tributes are left before dawn at Deans Avenue near the Al Noor Mosque on March 16, 2019 in Christchurch, New Zealand
People taking part in a vigil at the New Zealand War Memorial on Hyde Park Corner following the mosque attacks in Christchurch
'I would say it's something in the nature of his travels, something he's been around.
'I know he's been to lots of different countries trying to experience lots of different things in life and I would say something's happened in that time in his travels,' she said.
In a previous Facebook message about a trip to Pakistan on Facebook, he wrote: 'an incredible place filled with the most earnest, kindhearted and hospitable people in the world,' The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
'The beauty of hunza and nagar valley in autumn cannot be beat,' he stated.
Tarrant allegedly entered the Al Noor Mosque on Friday during afternoon prayers and opened fire, capturing the attack on a camera strapped to his helmet.
The distressing video streamed to his Facebook profile shows a man firing more than 100 shots at those inside.
The guns were scrawled with the names of past mass killers and cities where the shootings occurred.
Pictured: Bloodied bandages on the road after the shooting at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch
A man wearing military fatigues (pictured) was arrested outside Papanui High School. Police said they had made four arrests
At least one gunman opened fire at a mosque in New Zealand , shooting at worshippers and killing dozens of people. Pictured: A wounded man is helped from the scene
Police said the investigation had extended 240 miles to the south, where homes in Dunedin were evacuated around a 'location of interest.' They gave no details. Police are pictured in the city on Friday night
The alleged gunman's rampage began when he got into his car wearing military-style body armour and a helmet saying 'let's get this party started'.
He then drove to the mosque listening to a Serbian folk song glorifying war criminal Radovan Karadzic and military tunes before parking in an alley around the corner.
After retrieving one of at least six guns stored in his car, he walked up to the front door and began firing indiscriminately at worshippers inside.
The gunman stormed inside and fired quick bursts at anyone he saw. One wounded man tried to crawl away but was shot again after he calmly reloaded.
He fired into crowds of huddled worshippers, sometimes not even looking where he was shooting, reloading numerous times.
When then sound of his gun stopped between magazines, the moaning of wounded people could be heard until the shots began again.
Several times he stood over wounded men, reloaded his gun, and shot them multiple times to make sure they were dead.
Tarrant then walked outside and appeared to fire on at least two targets, returned to his car and swapped his shotgun for a rifle.
The gunmen live-streamed the mass shooting inside the Al Noor Mosque, which happened at 1.30pm as Friday prayers were underway. Police are pictured outside the mosque on Friday
Survivors gather near the Al Noor Mosque on Deans Road hours after the place of worship was attacked
The self-proclaimed racist who attacked a New Zealand mosque during Friday prayers in an assault that killed 49 people used rifles covered in white-supremacist graffiti and listened to a song glorifying a Bosnian Serb war criminal.
These details highlight the toxic beliefs behind an unprecedented, live-streamed massacre, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called 'one of New Zealand's darkest days.'
Some of the material posted by the killer resembles the meme-heavy hate speech prominent in dark corners of the internet. Beneath the online tropes lies a man who matter-of-factly wrote that he was preparing to conduct a horrific attack.
MUSIC
The shooter's soundtrack as he drove to the mosque included an upbeat-sounding tune that belies its roots in a destructive European nationalist and religious conflict.
The nationalist Serb song from the 1992-95 war that tore apart Yugoslavia glorifies Serbian fighters and Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, who is jailed at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague for genocide and other war crimes against Bosnian Muslims.
A YouTube video for the song shows emaciated Muslim prisoners in Serb-run camps during the war. 'Beware Ustashas and Turks,' says the song, using wartime, derogatory terms for Bosnian Croats and Muslims.
When the gunman returned to his car after the shooting, the song 'Fire' by English rock band 'The Crazy World of Arthur Brown' can be heard blasting from the speakers. The singer bellows, 'I am the god of hellfire!' as the man, a 28-year-old Australian, drives away.
SYMBOLS
At least two rifles used in the shooting bore references to Ebba Akerlund, an 11-year-old girl killed in an April 2017 truck-ramming attack in Stockholm by Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old Uzbek man.
The self-proclaimed racist believed to have killed 49 people at a New Zealand mosque during Friday prayers apparently opened fire with rifles covered in white-supremacist graffiti and listened to a song glorifying a Bosnian Serb war criminal
Akerlund's death is memorialized in the gunman's apparent manifesto, published online, as an event that led to his decision to wage war against what he perceives as the enemies of Western civilization.
The number 14 is also seen on the gunman's rifles. It may refer to '14 Words,' which according to the Southern Poverty Law Center is a white supremacist slogan linked to Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf.'
He also used the symbol of the Schwarze Sonne, or black sun, which 'has become synonymous with myriad far-right groups,' according to the center, which monitors hate groups.
In photographs from a now deleted Twitter account associated with the suspect that match the weaponry seen in his live-streamed video, there is a reference to 'Vienna 1683,' the year the Ottoman Empire suffered a defeat in its siege of the city at the Battle of Kahlenberg. 'Acre 1189,' a reference to the Crusades, is also written on the guns.
Four names of legendary Serbs who fought against the 500-year-rule of the Ottomans in the Balkans, written in the Cyrillic alphabet, are also seen on the gunman's rifles.
The name Charles Martel, who the Southern Poverty Law Center says white supremacists credit 'with saving Europe by defeating an invading Muslim force at the Battle of Tours in 734,' was also on the weapons. They also bore the inscription 'Malta 1565,' a reference to the Great Siege of Malta, when the Maltese and the Knights of Malta defeated the Turks.
By Associated Press
Returning to the mosque he walked over to a pile of dead or wounded men in the room and began shooting them in the head to ensure they were dead.
Once he was satisfied everyone was dead, he ran outside and shot another person he saw on the mosque's front lawn.
The woman stumbled on to the street and was lying face down in the gutter yelling 'help me, help me' as the shooter walked up to her. Tarrant calmly leaned over her and shot her twice in the head.
Seconds later he returned to his car and drove over her body to make his escape, stopping to shoot at least one other person through his car window.
As he drove he expressed regret for not staying longer and 'burning the mosque to the ground'. Two jerry cans of petrol were earlier seen the the back his car.
'But, s**t happens,' he said. 'I left one full magazine back there, I know for sure. I had to run along in the middle of the firefight and pick it up.
'There wasn't even time to aim there were so many targets. There were so many people, the car park was full, so there's no real chance of improvement.'
Footage from within the Masjid
